31 January 2012

Why Do I Choose Ubuntu? (A Personal Opinion)

So many people always complain about why do Ubuntu has so many bugs. As a long-time Ubuntu user, in one side, I agree with those, but in overall, my standpoint is still unchanged and maybe will never be : I always satisfied enough by using Ubuntu Linux.

These are the reasons why do I still and always choose Ubuntu :

1. I Don't Have Good Internet Connection, And I Don't Connect To The Internet Everyday

I'm an Indonesian, and for now, “good Internet connection”, in Indonesia is still expensive. Yes, many GSM providers offers “unlimited” broadband connection, but they're volume based. That mean, you will only get full speed of broadband access in the limit of your data quota. There are various offers of broadband access by GSM or CDMA provider, depend on their specific price offering. Cheaper price, littler data quota; and more expensive, bigger data quota. They're started with 256 MB into 5 GB data quota/month.

And the most miserable thing of that, after you use all your quota end, you will only get shared speed 64 Kb/s of Internet access. Shared speed here means 64 Kb/s for users in your connection coverage of the provider that you're using. In actual, you will only get speed under 4 Kb/s (that is horrible, isn't that?).

So, the cheaper and easier way to get Internet connection is by wi-fi hotspot, or by Internet cafe (in Indonesian, it's called Warnet).

2. I Love Debian Package Management

For long ago I'd sought an easiest package management in Linux, and finally, I've found dpkg. With apt and synaptic, Debian based Linux system, for me, is perfect. Gdebi is also great for me and very-very usable.

3. I Love Ubuntu Regular Release

Ubuntu has 6 months regular release cycle. I do love this way. Debian stable release with no certainty in the cycle, but Ubuntu has its own every 6 months release cycle. This way make me easier to download packages in Ubuntu repository manually and particularly, by just select the Ubuntu version I'm using. In Debian, it is more complicated. We must choose and find, which is the most appropriate version of the dependencies for the package we are searching, because there are stable, testing, unstable (sid) Debian version.

Critics and Hopes :

1. Ubuntu Software Center

Since 11.04, Ubuntu has decided to use Unity instead of “Pure Gnome”. For me, it is doesn't matter. I was discomfort with Unity, but it is okay. I still could choose another choices like Lubuntu or Xubuntu, or Fallback-Mode. But, one big thing that I've been really disappointed is the removing and replacing of synaptic and gdebi with Ubuntu Software Center.

For me, Ubuntu Software Center is heavy and extremely rigid. I couldn't install third parties apps like I did with gdebi. Yes I agree that Ubuntu Software Center is good looking and modern, but it is so heavy and not flexible. In gdebi, I could install any third party software, or install a particular package easily and safe. I also use gdebi to know which packages I have to download manually to complete the dependency chain. I know, Ubuntu Software Center is a part of the Ubuntu future, but we must consider that major Ubuntu users is PC/laptop/netbook users and abandon the “traditional” aspect of this is not good :)

I hope, in the next release, gdebi and synaptic will be brought back, and Ubuntu Software Center will be just a “Software Center” for newbie users, not the default package manager to open and manage deb files. Bring back synaptic and gdebi. Those are really precious :)

2. Banshee

Since I knew Banshee in openSUSE long time ago, I didn't like this app. Banshee is more heavy than Rhythmbox and its association to video files is absolutely useless. Banshee is not a video player, and so play video by this app is a worst thing. Then, banshee is a mono-based app and this app didn't run well in Ubuntu. When I close this app, this app still ran as a background task.

In 11.04 and 11.10, I can say, Ubuntu decision to use Banshee is a mistake, and I hope, in the next release, Ubuntu will never again, use this app. Just bring back rhythmbox, or give us a fresh, pretty and sophisticated useful music manager Clementine. It is a great Qt based music manager, a modern fork of the very popular Amarok 1.4 music player, but doesn't need kderuntime. Since 11.10 Ubuntu used Qt based unity-2d, I think put this app as defualt is make sense. Personally, I do love this app so much. For very long time I used Amarok 1.4 and now I use Clementine as my default music player.

Conclusion :

Because of those, I always feel comfort to use Ubuntu as my default and “official” operating system in my computer. Of course, because of its bugs, I have to Google, Google and Google. I use Ubuntu for all my needs. I use GIMP and Kolourpaint to edit images. I use SMplayer to play videos. I use Libreoffice to edit documents. I use Clementine to play and manage music files. I use Openshot to edit videos, and so many other big works I've done with Ubuntu. Wish Ubuntu will be more big, mature and stable :)